The Daily Pick And Roll (06/23/09)

It is the offseason, and the headlines reflect it. Nothing really to report on today other than ESPNU is playing college basketball games again tonight, and I believe they are also replaying the 1998 Powerade Jam Fest.

Since there isn’t much to cover today I’m going to start a segment called Controversial Call where I will give my opinion on a basketball related hot topic making its way around the internet.

*Update: I also hope to start working on a breakdown of the DDM offense tonight when I get home from work.*

ControversialCall

The so-called one-and-done rule has inevitably changed the face of college basketball. Talent that used to go straight to playing in the NBA now spends a year haphazardly attending college classes and pouring in points during the NCAA tournament. Now, I don’t want to paint all one-and-done players with the same brush. I know that not all of them take junk classes and skip so much that they kill their teams APR. Some of them even end up sticking around for more than one year; but lets be honest about it, most of them wouldn’t be in college if it wasn’t for the rule.

This has been a boon for low-major and mid-major programs. Talent that used to find its way onto the floor in Lexington and Chapel Hill now plays in Starkville and Spokane. There is a real sense of parity in college basketball these days. Being a big proponent of mid-major schools, I think this parity is great as a spectator of the game. One has to ask himself/herself then if parity is worth making a sham of higher education. Does having players who don’t want to be there watering down what used to make college basketball so great?

The answer, to me at least, is that yes it is ruining what used to be special about college basketball. The top players in the country no longer care about winning national titles. They no longer have the same passion for their school or hatred for their rivals. They are simply there to bid their time until the end of June.